Nurse training takes a high-tech leap at Grossmont College

EL CAJON  Years after she earned a business degree from Grossmont College, Jennifer Smith decided she wanted to go back to school to become a nurse.

She ended up on a waiting list for almost three years to get into Grossmont’s health professions program, but Smith finally graduated in June and was “ecstatic” to get a job fresh out of school.

The Santee resident was back on campus Wednesday as a recently hired nurse at Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa.

Smith was among 30 new Sharp nurses taking part in training exercises at the Grossmont College Health and Science Complex. Nurses from Alvarado Hospital have also used the state-of-the art complex to teach and train.

The $35 million, 52,000-square-foot facility, completed this spring, houses three nursing labs/classrooms and five high-tech simulation labs with computerized medical mannequins that can be programmed to respond just as a patient would.

Debbie Yaddow, associate dean of nursing at Grossmont College, helps oversee the use of the building and was on hand for some of the daylong training for nurses.

“We’ve had nurses here before, but never in this building,” Yaddow said. “Sharp Grossmont has been absolutely wonderful to our students and has helped place many of them. This is our way of giving back. This facility is extraordinary. When I talk to some of our graduates, some of them say, ‘I wish I could go back to nursing school here.’ ”

Count Smith as one of them.

While she had some experience working with two medical mannequins that Grossmont has been using since 2001, Smith hadn’t yet been to the complex. She also got a firsthand look at the school’s additional four mannequins, including a young child and a baby, as well as a three-bed “hospital room” and “intensive care unit.” All rooms have video capability.

“This building is incredible,” Smith said after looking around. “The mannequins, the amount of rooms, the equipment in the rooms. … I wish I was a student again. I’m excited to get to be here again as part of Sharp.”

The nurses’ training session included four 30- to 40-minute simulated clinical experiences, scenarios involving different degrees of patient need and care. Lab technicians sat at computers with Sharp nurses working together to program the “patients” to have abnormal breathing, blood pressure and temperature while the nurses took turns role playing.

There were a couple of minor glitches found in the computer’s video system, which was a benefit for Health Science lab technicians Dan Lopez and Pat Murray. They will now have an opportunity to work out the kinks before Grossmont students return in August. Despite the minor equipment setbacks, the lab technicians were able to do everything that needed to be done to teach the nurses valuable skills.

“Our goal (in the training) is to have these nurses ready for Sharp’s protocol,” Murray said. “To have them be able to come here and go through different scenarios, how to respond to a ‘code blue,’ or ‘stroke code’ or ‘rapid response code’ before they actually start doing these in the hospital. And how to communicate with the doctors.”

Longtime Sharp Grossmont nurse Ginnie Reil, who was helping instruct the new nurses, said that those taking part in Wednesday’s exercises are already experienced, but that hands-on work with mannequins offers much more.

“This prepares them the best for emergencies, but if they make mistakes, the ‘patient’ will live,” Reil said. “Having emergency situations in a safe learning environment is key. We are very fortunate to be using these facilities. And it’s fun for us, too, because it’s so real. We’ve seen some interesting things, like a nurse actually performing CPR on a mannequin. That’s how hands-on it is.”